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Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige and A-Rod part of Miami's long and storied baseball history

By George Richards

The Miami Herald

Posted:
07/07/2017 03:03:36 PM MDT

Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton is congratulated by third base coach Fredi Gonzalez (33) after hitting an RBI single against the Washington Nationals on June 21 at Marlins Park in Miami. (David Santiago / El Nuevo Herald)

(TNS) South Florida didn't officially hit the big leagues until 1993 when Charlie Hough uncorked a knuckleball past Jose Offerman for a called first strike in the inaugural game of the Florida Marlins.

Yet, for decades, baseball and Miami were intertwined.

Hough, as many before him and many since, grew up in Miami playing the game he loved on fields around town.

A native of Hawaii, Hough prepped at Hialeah (Fla.) High before spending 25 seasons in the big leagues — the final two with his hometown team in its infancy.

Today, the Miami Marlins play their games at a domed stadium atop hallowed football ground.

While the Orange Bowl is best known for the football games it hosted until being demolished to make way for the new Marlins ballpark, it was home to baseball, as well.

On Tuesday, the best players in the game will take to the field in Little Havana for the 88th annual All-Star Game.

Much of Miami's baseball history was made in and around Marlins Park.

On the west side of the ballpark once stood Tatum Field where Babe Ruth took his cuts during his first days with the Yankees.

Less than three miles from Marlins Park was the grand old Miami Stadium, a ballpark off Northwest 10th Avenue and 23rd Street in Allapattah that hosted the Brooklyn Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles during the spring and the original Miami Marlins during the dog days of summer.

A few miles to the south of Marlins Park, the Miami Hurricanes have become one of college baseball's powerhouse programs, winning four national championships and making trip after trip to the College World Series.

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High school baseball might not be as big as football in South Florida, yet two who grew up in Miami — Southwest's Andre Dawson and North Miami's Steve Carlton — are in the Hall of Fame.

Dozens of local products (take, for instance, Yonder Alonso, Anthony Rizzo, Eric Hosmer, Manny Machado, Gio Gonzalez, J.D. Martinez, Mike Napoli and Yasmandi Grandal) are in the big leagues today, with Alonso — from UM and Coral Gables High — taking part in the All-Star experience in his hometown.

Alex Rodriguez, the top pick of the 1993 out of Westminster Christian High whose name adorns the University of Miami's baseball park, will be part of the Fox broadcast.

Like many who grew up on baseball in South Florida before the Florida Marlins, Fredi Gonzalez spent many a day and night going to spring training and minor league games at Miami Stadium as well as UM games at Mark Light.

It wasn't the big leagues then, but it was still pretty good.

"I remember going to the first Marlins game at Joe Robbie Stadium, and here we are, 25 years later," said Gonzalez, the former manager of the Marlins and Atlanta Braves who now is Miami's third base coach.

"We have two World Series championships and now an All-Star Game. That's a pretty good chunk of history in a small amount of time."

South Florida became a popular starting point for big-league teams in the early 1900s, but it wasn't until after World War II that Miami and its surrounding areas became synonymous with the start of the baseball season.

According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the earliest known footage of Ruth in a Yankees uniform came in a 1920 visit to play Cincinnati in Miami. Ruth went to the Yankees from the Red Sox that previous winter.

Miami Stadium, opened in 1949, was the most famous of all of South Florida's spring training sites and is best known for being the spring home of the Baltimore Orioles from 1959 until 1990.

For a decade, the Brooklyn Dodgers played some of their spring games in Miami; the first ever game played by the newly relocated Los Angeles Dodgers was at an exhibition game against the Phillies at Miami Stadium in 1958.

So many Hall of Famers passed through South Florida during the spring it's almost impossible to count them all especially when looking at the numerous places teams called home.

With the Dodgers and Orioles playing games in Miami, the Yankees set up shop in Fort Lauderdale in 1962 and played there until leaving for Tampa in 1995.

Owner George Steinbrenner spent many a spring fighting with his players, managers and the media before heading up to his plush, air-conditioned luxury box sitting on top of Fort Lauderdale's Yankee Stadium.

The Orioles, who brought the likes of Jackson, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray and Frank Robinson to Miami, returned to South Florida in 1996 and took up Fort Lauderdale Stadium for a decade, playing until leaving in 2009.

To the north of Fort Lauderdale were spring training sites in West Palm Beach (Braves, Expos) and Pompano Beach (Senators, Rangers) as well.

Teams also used local facilities for minor-leaguers and their workouts such as the Orioles at Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University) and the Yankees using Boggs Field in Hollywood before moving operations to Tampa after plans to move to Coral Springs in the 1980s fell through.

Today, four teams call Palm Beach County their spring home, with the Cardinals and Marlins training in Jupiter, and the Nationals and Astros moving to the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches last spring.

Years before the University of Miami won its first national football championship in the 1984 Orange Bowl, Ron Fraser had built up quite a baseball program in Coral Gables.

Fraser got the Hurricanes to the College World Series for the first time in 1974, and on their sixth trip, Miami won the first major national title in program history.

But the Hurricanes weren't the only local program winning championships and producing big-league talent as the Miami-Dade junior college teams were powerhouses in their own right.

Playing at various campuses around the county, MDCC claims a pair of Hall of Famers in Carlton and Mike Piazza among the likes of Oddibe McDowell, Warren Cromartie, Kurt Bevacqua, John Cangelosi, Bucky Dent, Lenny Harris, Bobby Estalella, Orlando Palmiero and Mike Stanley.

Other schools such as Florida International — which showcased former Coral Gables and future Marlins star Mike Lowell — have also found success on the diamond.

Once the big-leaguers headed north following spring training, there was still plenty of baseball to be found in South Florida as various minor-league teams took up residence in the spacious big-league parks.

The first big wave of minor league baseball came in the early 1940s with the Florida East Coast League that featured teams like the Miami Beach Tigers (and Flamingos), Miami Wahoos (and Seminoles), Fort Lauderdale Tarpons and West Palm Indians.

The Miami Sun Sox — also known as the Tourists for a time — were a farm team of the Brooklyn Dodgers, whose rivals played not too far away at Flamingo Park in Miami Beach.

The Sun Sox played their games before Miami Stadium opened at Miami Field located next to the Orange Bowl.

In 1956, the Phillies' Triple A franchise in the International League moved to Miami from Syracuse with the newly christened Miami Marlins playing some of their home games at the Orange Bowl. Best known for football, a large fence was put up in right field with first base running alongside the east end zone.

The Marlins' biggest draw was former Negro League and big-league star Satchel Paige, who even at 50 was mowing batters down.

On Aug. 7, 1956, a crowd of over 57,000 filled the Orange Bowl to watch Paige — who arrived to the stadium via helicopter — beat the Columbus Jets.

Those Marlins would eventually move and be replaced by a Single A team that played in the Florida State League for decades.

Baltimore eventually renamed the team and the Miami Orioles were a powerhouse in the FSL thanks to such Baltimore prospects as Ripken, Palmer, Murray, Johnny Oates, Don Baylor, Kiko Garcia, Mike Flanagan and Dennis Martinez.

The Orioles would pull their affiliation in the 1980s, bringing the Miami Marlins back — although they wouldn't last into the 1990s.

Despite having some talent — Coral Park's Jose Canseco spent some time with the Marlins in 1982 — the Marlins didn't draw and eventually moved to Pompano Beach under their new name, the Miracle.

Aside from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach also had teams in the FSL with affiliations to their spring parents like the Yankees and Expos. Today, a pair of teams play in Jupiter.

The former Miami Marlins are now the Fort Myers Miracle.

Obviously, the Marlins coming to South Florida in 1993 was the biggest thing to happen to baseball in the area. H. Wayne Huizenga was awarded one of two National League franchises along with Denver in 1991 and the Marlins played their first game in 1993.

The team won the World Series in 1997, tore apart its roster and rebuilt again, winning a second championship in 2003.

The Florida Marlins spent 19 seasons at their football stadium home in Miami Gardens before rebranding as the Miami Marlins and moving to their new home in Little Havana.

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